


Push and Pull

by Cherrakinn



Series: Tale of The Tides [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Dragons, F/M, Original Characters - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-02-13
Packaged: 2019-10-27 09:32:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17764250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cherrakinn/pseuds/Cherrakinn
Summary: Two scaled swimmers meet, and all it seems to take is a little push.





	Push and Pull

This meeting would start just the same as all the others. That flash of purple, deep and dark and sending every instinct in his mind screaming that this kind of purple was _dangerous_ , and he smiled. He swam for it, his stripes flashing once in eager excitement, and there was an answering pulse of light, a deeper blue hue. They met, just as always, right where the water began to darken. It was too light for his companion, she stuck out like a coral here, but that was the point. Too light for her, and too dark for him. His scales didn’t shimmer or blend in here either, though he looked better off in terms of camouflage here. A taste of two words, something that was best accomplished here, in the middle of their worlds. There was always something new they did. The first few days they’d managed to meet up, on pure coincidence, maybe, he had been content to simply swim in their presence. First, they’d done so haltingly, with caution and uncertainty. Distance had been kept, and even the hint of something had made him bolt, had made his companion freeze in place. Over those days, they’d swum closer over time, and finally, they’d really looked at each other. Face to face, no huge distance between them, and no aggression to be held.

Now, however, was more fun. The last time they’d met, a few days prior, they’d exchanged small gifts. He’d given her a fish from the shallows to try, and a necklace of shoreline shells. In return he had a bracelet of dark, deep-water rocks and had been treated to a piece of some kind of shark. Or, he was fairly certain it had been some kind of shark. He’d had no way to tell. Today he’d brought a pearl for her, but she seemed to have come empty clawed. He didn’t mind, really, because he knew that meant she had something planned instead. He watched as her arms extended, momentarily showing off those huge, fin-like wings, before she settled, her tail swaying in the water as she gave him a curious look. Obligingly, he held out the pearl, and she tucked it away into the pouch on her neck as the spines along her back rippled. Once it was safely stashed away, hidden, she raised her eyes back to him, then made a sudden move closer, until their noses nearly touched. She was careful to avoid the tusks that stuck out from his lower jaw, and very lightly reached her claws up to set to his chest before slowly turning, using her tail to tug at his, urging him to follow the lead she was giving him.

Oh gods, call him a fool, but he couldn’t help but follow. They spun a slow circle in the water, his wings helping him turn, and her tail untangling to help her keep herself steady. It took a turn or two for her to move back, her eyes an inviting twinkle, daring him to follow. And follow he did, regardless of the danger he’d been warned of his whole life. As she moved back, and he moved forward, she began leading him once more in a slow, turning circle. The space between them got slowly wider until she could flare her wings out, giving him a sharp toothed smile, a _dare_ , and then turned tail and took off. It left him in a cloud of bubbles for a moment before his heart gave a pulse and he raced after her, keeping his arms and legs tucked in to lend him speed. If he wanted to keep up, he would need it. She was already far ahead, and he knew she was faster by pure physical evolution.He could tell she slowed for him, because he managed to keep up for several minutes, and when she finally, truly slowed, his gills were heaving oxygen to him in bursts. It felt wonderfully dangerous, and he felt like he was riding a high as he crash forward again, knocking their forehead together with a calculated force, gentle enough not to hurt, but enough to knock him back a bit.

He let it all happen, floating frozen in the water, watching her scales glimmer and glint in the new light. The mad race to follow her had led them higher, and the sunlight that filtered through the water caught her scales like a polished pearl, giving her a shine that he’d never seen before. He opened his mouth, as if to say something, before closing it under the water again. Hesitantly he flashes a few stripes at her, but she didn’t look down to see them, her eyes staying locked with his own. He had tried only once before to do that- and the result had been just the same. This was something that did not use words. Giving each other words would make it all real- make it daunting and bigger and incredibly taboo. They both knew that if that happened, they would have to truly chose. Until then, they could pretend. He conceded easily with a bow of his head, and the deep water counterpart reached forward to carefully eave his claws with hers, wary of their webbed toes, then drew him closer, leaning to him with a silent moment of trust. After a moment, he returned the gesture, leaning in and lower his head to let their necks rest against each other. Their gills scraped over one another for a moment and a jolt of longing passed through his body. She pulled back a moment later, her eyes dull and yet managing to glimmer with emotion.

Once they'd pulled apart, he noticed, for a moment, that the sunlight had begun to recede, slowly, from the water, she led him once more. This time, however, there was no race. No tricks. This time they swirled through the water, turning circles and looping around each other with the grace of dolphins. If he widened his turns for her, or if she slowed her movements for him, neither of them lingered on it. It was just part of it all. These little allowances, adjustments, to each other. It was easy to find his movements as they began to dance through the water in a way that only their own kinds could. An old dance, one from _before_ , one passed through generations despite the foul relations. They had each learned a different part, a part for _their_ kind, but the two parts were a perfect match. They were made to be performed together, in harmony. In part, in sync with their partner, a dance made to inspire peace and good fortune.

As the light of the sun truly faded, leaving them floating in the moonlight as they finished their dance, he knew he had to leave. He was not made for the dark, not the way that she was. With a wave of regret, he leaned forward to rub against her once more before turning tail and following a current back to where he’d come from. Back to his home, where he would pretend it had never happened, and that he’d simply gotten lost among the corals.

Even when he began to leave, the dark dragon stayed behind, floating in the space, watching his shimmer blue vanish into the night. With a slow blink, the stripes of her scales flashed along her body. She hesitated only a moment longer, a trained hope that perhaps he had turned around in time to see it, before she turned and dove down, back into the depths. To her own home in the dark corners of the ocean, where she could return to her room and stash the pearl away with every other treasure she’d gotten from the surface. From him.

_I love you too._

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! This is the first thing I've ever published, but that's because I'm finally actually, uhhh... Well, working on something big!  
> I've got a story idea that I want to share and even if all I'm posting here is going to be snippets and drabbles, I still want somewhere to post them  
> Once I get to the point where I might actually release a real story, it might actually... be a published book, if these get enough popularity??  
> The name is up for debate but atm its going to be called "Tale of the Tides"  
> I hope you liked this first sneaky peak and if you did! Feel free to leave a comment or a kudo!


End file.
